To Preserve Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the brine
Mix 4 gallons of water with 2 quarts of fresh slaked lime and 2 quarts of coarse sea salt.
Let the mixture stand for 3 days, stirring often.
Preserve the eggs
Carefully place the eggs in a barrel filled with this mixture, ensuring they settle right end up.
Keep the eggs covered with the fluid for preservation.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Fresh slaked lime
- Makes the brine strongly alkaline, which slowly gels the egg white and darkens the yolk.
- Coarse sea salt
- Adds salinity to the brine, helping preserve the eggs and slow spoilage.
The step that matters
Keep the eggs fully submerged and upright. Eggs must stay covered by the alkaline liquid so the lime can work evenly through the shell and membrane. Exposed areas can spoil or dry, and an upright egg keeps its air cell at the top, which helps it set evenly.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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